Posts Tagged ‘Thanksgiving’

Since my usual day to post is Wednesday each week, I've decided I'll probably not post next week. Everyone will be too busy preparing for Thanksgiving guests or traveling to be someone else's Thanksgiving guest to read a blog post from me. I may do a short post in the meantime, when we hear the results of our daughter Megan's biopsy. Many thanks to those who have prayed for her!

Today's post will a funny story, probably just an urban legend, but funny nonetheless, followed by a reposting of one of my favorite stories.

We'll start off with the funny story.

One year at Thanksgiving, my mom went to my sister's house for the traditional feast. Knowing how gullible my sister is, my mom decided to play a trick. She told my sister that she needed something from the store.

When my sister left, my mom took the turkey out of the oven, removed the stuffing, stuffed a Cornish hen, and inserted it into the turkey, and re-stuffed the turkey. She then placed the bird(s) back in the oven.Click here to continue reading this post ⇒

Our family had such a nice Thanksgiving break this year that it was hard to tell it all good-bye and get back to reality. I thought I'd post a couple of bits of post-Thanksgiving humor to help ease the pain of withdrawal.

It was the several days after Thanksgiving, the trip went reasonably well and Joe was ready to go back. The airport on the other end had turned a tacky red and green, and loudspeakers blared annoying renditions of cherished Christmas carols. Being someone who took Christmas very seriously, and being slightly tired, Joe was not in a particularly good mood.

Going to check in his luggage, Joe saw mistletoe hanging near the check-in — not real mistletoe, but very cheap plastic with red paint and white paint on some of the rounder parts and green paint on some of the flatter and pointier parts. It could be taken for mistletoe only in a very Picasso sort of way.

With a considerable degree of irritation and nowhere else to vent it, Joe said to the attendant, "Where did you get such a ghastly mockery of mistletoe?"

While living in Paris and writing for the New York Herald Tribune in the early 1950's, Art Buchwald wrote a column to try to explain Thanksgiving to the French. Some of his translations are hilarious if you know French, and some probably meant little, if anything, to the French who read the article ... that is, unless they knew English also. His article has been reprinted often by a number of newspapers and has been posted on enough blogs that I think it's safe to print it here with copyright info and a link to a repost of the article in the Washington Post from whom I got it originally 15 years ago. Being a French teacher, I just had to put in the proper accent marks. 🙂

One of the most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant.

Le Jour de Merci Donnant was first started by a group of pilgrims (Pèlerins) who fled from l'Angleterre before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World (le Nouveau Monde), where they could shoot Indians (les Peaux-Rouges) and eat turkey (dinde) to their hearts' content.

They landed at a place called Plymouth (now a famous voiture Américaine) in a wooden sailing ship named the Mayflower (Fleur de Mai) in 1620. But while the Pèlerins were killing the dindes, the Peaux-Rouges were killing the Pèlerins, and there were several hard winters ahead for both of them. The only way the Peaux-Rouges helped the Pèlerins was when they taught them how to grow corn (maïs). They did this because they liked corn with their Pèlerins.

In 1623, after another harsh year, the Pèlerins' crops were so good they decided to have a celebration and give thanks because more maïs was raised by the Pèlerins than Pèlerins were killed by the Peaux-Rouges.

Every year on le Jour de Merci Donnant, parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration.

It concerns a brave capitaine named Miles Standish (known in France as Kilomètres Deboutish) and a shy young lieutenant named John (Jean) Alden. Both of them were in love with a flower of Plymouth called Priscilla Mullens (no translation). The vieux capitaine said to the jeune lieutenant:Click here to continue reading this post ⇒

This is the time of year when many Americans think about turkey. I am looking forward to Becka's Thanksgiving meal in which turkey will figure prominently. But I have to say that turkey is also on my mind a lot because one of my roles in A Christmas Carol is that of the Poulterer — the man who sells Scrooge the turkey for the Cratchit family on Christmas morning. 🙂

Today's iv is a story about a man with an obsession for turkey, followed by several cartoons related to turkey that I've been saving since Thanksgiving last year.

A man had such a passion for turkey that he always had some in his refrigerator. He was constantly snacking on the birds and he went through an average of one a week.

This, unfortunately, had him continually gaining weight, and his health started deteriorating.

The man was aware of this but simply could not stop. Despite pleading from his friends, family and even his doctor, he just couldn't kick his addiction — he just loved turkey too much.

Finally, after weighing himself one day and being horrified by the read out, he decided to make whatever changes were necessary to reverse his dramatic weight gain. In time his weight dropped, his health improved, and he felt much better.

At a family gathering, his siblings were amazed at how great he looked. "How did you do it?" one of them asked him.

A national day of thanksgiving has been a part of American life since the earliest days of our country in the early 1600s. By the mid-17th century, the custom of thanksgivings was established throughout New England and began to spread southward during the American Revolution. The newly established Congress recognized the need for such a celebration. The Founding Fathers thought it important that this tradition be recognized by proclamation.

Soon after approving the Bill of Rights, a motion was made in Congress to initiate the proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving. In 1789 Congress requested that the president "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God...." And President Washington did just that.

After 1815 the annual tradition of a presidential proclamation ceased and did not resume until during the Civil War, when President Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving. The traditional day eventually became the last Thursday of November.Click here to continue reading this post ⇒

updates via RSS or Twitter

receive blog updates by e-mail

here's how:

Leave this field empty if you're human:

a little about me…

My name is Rob Loach and I welcome you to my blog. People come here for an "instant vacation." You can learn more about me and about my instant vacations, including why my blog is called "ivman's blague," by visiting the about page, where you can watch my TV interview about my blog. My site is thirteen years old, so check out the tabs at the top of this page, subjects of interest to you in the tag cloud (below), and older blog posts (about 750 of them) not on the home page of the blog. Though I am posting less often than at first, there's still lots of archived humor here for you to enjoy!

a need you may not be aware of

check out Nora’s amazing cookies

a great read

order this new book!

radical rescue work

Watch these DVD's and never be the same!

good, inexpensive cell phone service

We have enjoyed cheaper cell phone usage for almost 4 years now. Get $20 off your first bill when you activate a new phone line clicking on the Republic Wireless image below. (Offer good through October 31, 2017.)

links you might enjoy

networks I’m in

I post a lot of funny images to my blog. Most of them are sent to me by my readers. If the images come with copyright information, I leave that intact, of course. Otherwise I post them in good faith that they are copyright free. I invite any copyright owner to contact me if I have unwittingly infringed by posting the images as they have come to me.